Simultaneous transfer mechanism for calculating machines



Dec. 9 1969 a, PIERO ET AL CIMUL TANECUS TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CALCULATING MACHINES I Filed June 8, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l/M22! a/mv P/ERO INVENTORS Hon/55cm amlvcnmo H L, FFQMK DMWS ATTORNEY Dec. 9, 1969 B, G. PIEROI ET AL 3,482,775

SIMULTANEOU -TRANSFER MECHANISM'FOR- CALCULATING MACHINES Filed June 8, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 fim zzl l/M/ P/M mvsmon F amlvcmzo BY M -L UM $44,

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,482,775 SIMULTANEOUS TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CALCULATING MACHINES Barozzi Gian Piero and Horeschi Giancarlo, Tokyo, Japan, assignors to Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, a corporation of Japan Filed June 8, 1967, Ser. No. 644,670 Claims priority, application Italy, Nov. 18, 1966,

,085/ 66 Int. Cl. G06c 7/10, 9/00 US. Cl. 235-137 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A column carrying system for calculators and the like apparatus of the type comprising rack bars and an accumulator consisting of gears, each rack bar being provided with a first lever having two teeth adapted for engagement with the cams on the accumulator gears, said first lever being operatively connected to a second lever, whereby, upon completion of one revolution of said gear, the first lever is lowered enabling the second lever to be pushed by push rod or bar for selectively integrating the rack bars in a position one pitch beyond the position coinciding with 0, all other rack bars being permitted to return to their original position.

The present invention has for its object the provision of a column carrying system for calculators and the like apparatus, wherein all rack bars are moved downwardly one pitch beyond a position coinciding with 0 and successively thereafter those rack bars which are related to the column carrying are integrated in said position, while those which are not related to the column carrying are returned to the position coinciding with 0.

In conventional machines, i.e. column carrying systems comprising an accumulator consisting of toothed bars (hereinafter referred to as rack bars) and gears, it is necessary for the gear to advance one step when the preceding gear on the right-hand side has completed one revolution. This is obviously attained by a column carrying system. When one step motion is given to one gear in the accumulator, which is about to complete its revolution, the gear on the left-hand side thereof is moved one step and thus the gear is moved successively. Accordingly, racks connected to the respective gears are moved successively one after another. In other words, the movement of a succeeding rack is commenced upon completion of the movement of the preceding rack. Thus, it will be understood that the time required for the completion of column carrying operation is the sum of the times required for the movement of the respective racks relating to a number having been set.

In another form of conventional machines, column carrying is effected by transferring the column to other mechanism which is adapted to retain the column transferred thereto and the column is transferred to the accumulator after the racks having been in engagement with said accumulator are disengaged therefrom and brought into engagement with said mechanism.

However, with the system described above, time is required for the disengagement and re-engagement and also for the transfer from the mechanism to the accumulator. Therefore, the operation interior of the system is to occur within a period of time which corresponds to the sum of said two periods of time. This is apparently disadvantageous in respect of the required calculation time.

With the column carrying system according to the present invention, column carrying is effected on all associating racks within the same period of time and those Patented Dec. 9, 1969 racks which are not related to the column carrying are returned to the 0-position in the succeeding period, whereby the aforementioned drawback is eliminated. As such, according to the present invention, the time required for column carrying can be shortened drastically and the total time required for calculation can be shortened accordingly. A further advantage of the inventive system is that the system comprises a mechanism which is low in cost, positive in operation and simple in construction.

The column carrying system according to the present invention, in addition to the accumulator consisting of ordinary rack bars and a pair of gears alternatively meshing with said racks, comprises a first lever arranged on the left side of and adjacent each rack, said first lever having two teeth parallel to the teeth of the rack and in engagement with cams on said gears. The first lever is latched by a fixed cross bar at one conventional pawl, and is connected to a second lever adapted to move smoothly in the horizontal direction. The second lever is normally urged backwardly by an elastic member but is pushed forward by the cross bar at the end of rotation. Due to such movement, the second lever latches the rack bar which is then lowered by a depressing bar one pitch beyond the O-position.

Such a latching motion, in fact, occurs only on specific bars which perform column carrying operation and the other bars are not latched in the position one pitch beyond the 0-position, so that these bars are permitted to return to the 0-position when the depressing bar returns to its resting position.

As may be seen from the foregoing description, the first lever is operated by the cam on the accumulator gear which is driven by the right-hand side rack as the column carrying is required. In other words, the first lever is disconnected from the fixed cross bar by the action of one of said cams which lowers said first lever more than one pitch in the state of subtraction or addition. Upon releasing of the first lever, the lever is disconnected from the cam on the accumulator gear to prepare for the next motion.

The terms right and left as used herein are the directions with respect to the operator who is posted on the keyboard side facing the machine.

The first lever carries thereon a pin which is received in a slot in the second lever, so that, when the first lever is lowered, the second lever is also lowered. The second lever, as stated previously, is arranged to move along a predetermined path in a direction perpendicular to the rack bar, i.e. in a horizontal direction, and is inserted into a comb-shaped fixed slit at its elongate projection. Due to such arrangement, the second lever is not only movable along the predetermined path but also rockable. Namely, the second lever is lowered at its free end by being pushed by the first lever while being constantly urged away from said rack bar by a spring which is mounted between the second lever and a fixed end. The cross bar controlling the second lever is moved towards the recess formed in the rack bar at the end of rotation. As a result, the second lever is pushed towards the rack bar so that the aforementioned projection on the second lever is received in the recess in the rack bar when certain conditions are satisfied, and thereby the rack bar itself is retained in its position.

The second lever has at its end opposite to the rack bar a pair of tongue-shaped lugs perpendicularly of each other, and one of said lugs is arranged horizontally facing the lever on the right-hand side, while the other is arranged vertically facing the lever on the left-hand side. The sizes of these tongue-shaped lugs are determined such that the horizontal lug is just large enough to be placed in a fixed lug, whereas the vertical lug is just large enough to engage the horizontal lug of the left-side lever and to be located on the line drawn by the control cross bar. Consequently, when the first lever is lowered by the cam on the accumulator gear and latched by the fixed cross bar, it causes the second lever to move through the engagement between the pin and the slot. The second lever is lowered because it is supported at one end by a fixed plate. As such, the tongue-shaped lug of the second lever is moved with respect to the ahead cross bar so that said second lever may be pushed forward by the movement of said cross bar.

During such operation, all rack bars in the machine are lowered by the depressing bar to the positions one pitch beyond the -position and, in these positions, all rack bars may be latched by the aforementioned projection on the second lever. However, the latching motion takes place only on those rack bars whose associating second levers are pushed forward by the action of the push rod or bar. This is caused by the lowering of the first lever which is effected by the cam on the accumulator gear. Furthermore, the accumulator is associated with the first lever by the preceding rack bar on the right-hand side. In the operation described, during rotation of the accumulator gear more than one tooth following the lowering and latching of the first lever, the other gear rotates in an opposite direction simultaneously with the return movement of the rack bar to the 0-position.

As is well known, simultaneously with the return movement of the push rod or bar to its resting position, the associating accumulator is disconnected from the rack bar and the return bar prepares for the disengagement of the first lever from the fixed cross bar, providing for return movement of the first lever to its resting position, which in turn enables the second lever to make a return movement. These levers now enable the rack bar which has completed shifting of column carrying, to return to the 0-position.

According to the present invention, there is also arranged such that, when the numeral succeeding the column carrying is 9 and the respective left-side adjacent second levers are pushed forward by the ahead cross bar through the vertical lugs, the second levers can effect column carrying. In fact, according to the present invention, where entire column carrying is scheduled to be materialized, disengagement of the first lever should cause the rack bar to exceed one pitch due to the simultaneous movement of the gear completing one revolution. On the contrary, where the accumulator gear is rotated only 9 or is located in the position of numeral 9, the first lever associating with the cam on the same gear is lowered by said carn during the movement of the rack bar one pitch beyond 0. This can be said only on an amount smaller than that equivalent to the lowering caused by the aforementioned one pitch or the complete revolution of the gear. Namely, the rack bar exceeds 9+1. Consequently, it will be seen that the separation of only one pitch does not enable the second lever to be pushed at its vertical lug directly by the ahead bar but the second lever uses also its horizontal lug which is pushed by the vertical lug of the right-side adjacent second lever. The horizontal lug arranged below the fixed projection retains the second lever in the lowered position into which it is lowered by the respective rack bar. Therefore, the rack bar itself is retained in the lowered position as stated previously. Thus, it will be appreciated that the accumulator gear associating with the rack bar which is lowered more than one pitch is retained in said position, whereas the gears of other rack bars, which are free and returning to the resting position, are rotated in an opposite direction of the gears.

These and other features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which the present invention is illustrated as applied to a calculator having racks and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of one element of the mechanism in a calculator which operates together with some of said element;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the same mechanism as that shown in FIGURE 1 but showing the state under which column carrying has been completed;

FIGURE 3 is a cross section taken along the line IIIIII of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 4 is a view of the mechanism in the state shown in FIGURES 2 and 3 as viewed in the direction of the arrow IV.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 designates rack bars which a calculator normally comprises. In FIGS. 1 and 2, only one rack 'bar is shown together with the associating parts, but the illustration is also applicable to all other rack bars. Numeral 2 designates stops of a numeral setting carriage not shown, 3 designates a lowering bar for lowering the rack bar 1 and 4 designates a spring mounted between a fixed part 5 and a lug 1a of the rack bar 1. The spring 4 constantly urges the rack bar 1 upwardly against the action of the depressing bar 3.

Each rack bar is arranged in front of a pair of gears 8 and 9 which are rotatably mounted on respective pins 6 and 7 composing an accumulator. The vertical movement of each rack bar 1 is guided by a fixed cross bar 10. On the left-side of each rack bar 1 is arranged a first lever 11 having teeth 11a and 1112 which are in parallel to the teeth 1b of the rack bar 1 and are engageable with half tooth-shaped cams 8a and 9a respectively which are provided on one side of the gears 8 and 9 of the accumulator.

The terms right and left as used herein are the directions with respect to an operator posted on the keyboard side.

Besides the teeth 11a and 1112 described above, the first lever is formed with teeth 11c and 11d, a lug 15 for engagement with a return bar 21 to be described later, a lug 16 holding one end of a spring 17 the other end of which is connected to a fixed part of the machine, and a lug 18 adapted to be received in a slot in a fixed support for sliding movement therein. A second lever 22 is formed with a lug 23 arranged to move and oscillate in a lug 24 of the fixed support 19 along a predetermined path, 2. lug 25 having one end of a spring 26 connected thereto which has the other end connected to the fixed end 27 of the fixed support 19 so as to move said second lever 22 to the right as viewed in the figures, a slot 28 for receiving a pin 29 carried on the first lever 11 and an end portion 30 which carries a rightwardly extending horizontal lug 31 at the underside and a leftwardly extending vertical lug 32 at the front end thereof.

A bar 33 is arranged forwardly of the lug 32 and may be moved forwardly at the end of the lowering motion of the rack bar 1 which is caused by the movement of the cross bar 3 as indicated at 3a in FIG. 2. The fixed support 19 is formed, besides the aforementioned lugs 24 and 27, with a comb-shaped portion and a tongue-shaped lug 34.

The system of the construction described above will operate in the following manner. Suppose that the accumulator gear 9 is in engagement with the teeth of the preceding rack bar not shown and also that the associating side cam 9a is in contact with the tooth 11b of the first lever as shown in FIG. 1. The first lever 11 is retained by the tooth 11c engaging the cross bar 10, while being urged upwardly by the spring 17. It will thus be understood that, in order to effect column carrying, the accumulator gear, which is previously turned 9 teeth in the direction of the arrow A by the rack bar, must be placed in the position in which the half-tooth cam 9a is located on the tooth 11b of the first lever 11 as shown in FIG. 1. When at least 1 is added to the accumulator gear by causing it to rotate by the corresponding rack upon setting a suitable numeral, the gear 9 is further turned one tooth in the direction of the arrow A, with the result that the first lever is lowered one step due to the engagement of the cam 9a with the tooth 11b as shown in FIG. 2. The same action takes place when the gear 8 and the cam 8a come in engagement with the rack 112.

As the lever 11 moves to a lower position, the surface 11d on the side opposite to the teeth moves along the cross bar 10 at a constant rate. In this case, since the surface 11d is one pitch higher than the movement of the rack, it remains at the same place as before though lower than the cross bar 10.

In the meantime, the depressing bar 3 reaches a position coinciding with 0 (see FIG. 1) and continues to move into a position which is lower by one or more pitches. Such a movement retracts all rack bars 1 and the gears connected therewith. As a result, the first lever which is already in engagement with the cam 9a through its own tooth 11b is also retracted to a lowered position, so that the surface 11d finally comes in engagement with the underside of the fixed cross bar 10.

As a result of the movement described above, the first lever 11 is inclined by the spring 17 with a relative movement of the lug 18. The inclination of the first lever precipitates the following two motions. One is that the teeth 11a and 11b which have been in engagement with the cams 8a and 9a respectively are disengaged from said cams and another is that the lug approaches the bar 21 for return movement to the original position.

When the first lever 11 is lowered, the lever 22 is also lowered due to the engagement of the pin 29 with the slot 28 and therefore the end portion 30 of the lever 22 is lowered, bringing the tongue-shaped lug 32 to a position in front of the bar 33. Then, the bar 33 starts to move in the direction of the arrow B causing the entire lever 22 to move forwardly. Thus, in order to retain the rack bar 1 in a position one pitch lower than 0 by the lug 23 of the second lever 22 which has been lowered by the first lever 11, the bar 33 moves in the direction of the arrow B topush the second lever 22 toward the notch formed in the rack bar 1. The lug 23 comes in engagement with the lug 35 of the rack bar 1 which is now lowered by the bar 3 which has been brought into a position one pitch lower than 0. The rack bar 1, therefore, is retained in the lowered position beyond "0 by the lug 23. On the other hand, the unrelated adjacent rack bars carrying the lug 23 are not pushed forward by the bar 33 because they are not lowered by the cams of the accumulator gears and are free to return to the position coinciding with 0 along with the bar 3. In this case, the tongue-shaped lug 32 of the lever 22 is placed on the next lever 22 indicated by the dotted lines in FIG. 2 and the lug 32 itself is not at a level so high as to be pushed by the bar 33. Where the rack bar is lowered one pitch beyond 0 and the lever 11 is lowered by the cam 9a on the associating gear, bringing the lever 22 to a position indicated by 22' (FIGS. 4 and 2), the tongueshaped lug 32 itself is not brought in front of the bar 33, so that the bar 33 is not engageable with the lug 32. However, the tongue-shaped lug 32 of the preceding lever on the right-hand side prepares for such engagement. For this purpose, the lever 22 engages the horizontal tongueshaped lug 31' of the lever 22. The adjacent lever 22 is thus brought into an engageable position to retain the corresponding rack bar 1 for shifting the column carrying. The other rack bars, on the other hand, return to the 0- position as stated previously.

In this case, the tongue-shaped lug 31' of the lever 22 is brough into engagement with the underside of the lug 34 of the lever 22 from moving to a higher level and holds said lever 22 in engagement with the tongue-shaped lug 32 of the preceding lever 22 on the right-hand side. Upon disengagement of the gear 9 from the tooth 1b of the rack bar 1, the cross bar 33 returns to its original position and, at the same time, the return bar 21 (FIG. 2) which is moving on the lug 15 of the lever 11 in the direction of the arrow C has its own tooth 11d disconnected from the cross bar 10, to provide for return movement of the lever 11 and lever 22 connected thereto, to their original positions. Thus, the machine is prepared for another rotary motion.

Alternatively, the calculator may have an accumulator consisting of one or a pair of gears arranged so as to engage always at the same point. In this case, the first lever 11 is provided with only one tooth.

It will be clear that many modifications are possible to the system described and illustrated herein in its structure as well as in the adaptability to various calculators without deviating from the object of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A column-carrying system for calculators and the like apparatus of the type comprising toothed rack bars and an accumulator comprising gears having cam means,

said system further comprising a first lever arranged adjacent each rack bar and adapted to engage said cams on said accumulator gears,

said first lever being moved by one of said cams as said cam completes its one revolution, a second lever adapted to oscillate downwardly under the control of said first lever and having a lug adapted to retain said rack bar,

a fixed cross bar adjacent said rack bar,

means for lowering each rack bar in the machine which is not held by its associated second lever to a condition which is one pitch beyond its 0 position,

a push rod for actuating each second lever whose respective first lever is latched by the corresponding fixed cross bar and is lowered by said cams of said gear,

each said second lever so actuated by said push rod being effective to hold the respective rack bar in its 0 position,

means including a depressing bar effective upon the return of said depressing bar to its 0 position to return to the 0 position all said rack bars which are not held by their respective second levers,

whereby column-carrying can be effected simultaneously for all columns by actuating simultaneously the rack bars for the ditferent columns.

2. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which said second lever is provided with a first horizontal tongue-shaped lug and a second vertical tongue-shaped lug flexed towards an adjacent lever, said first tongueshaped lug being adapted to be inserted under a fixed part of the calculator to retain said second lever in the lowered position and said second tongue-shaped lug being adapted to push an adjacent second lever through said first tongue-shaped lug even if said push rod is not in contact with the first lever.

3. A column carrying system according to claim 2, in which, when the accumulator gear has completed its revolution to conincide with numeral 9 but the preceding rack bar is already in shifting, said second lever is pushed forward to latch the corresponding rack bar by the preceding second lever through the engagement of the vertical tongue-shaped lug of the preceding second lever with the horizontal tongue-shaped lug of said second lever.

4. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which said rack bars in the machine are lowered simultaneously one pitch beyond a position coinciding with 0 by a depressing bar and successively thereafter are returned to the position coinciding with 0' and retained in that position until another rotation is commenced.

5. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which said system is provided with a return bar which is adapted to move on the first lever to return said first lever, second lever and all rack bars to their original position.

6. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which said second lever (22) has a lug (23) for retaining the rack bar (1), and a lug (32) for engagement with a bar (33) by which the second lever (22) is pushed, whereby when the second lever (22) is pushed by the bar (33) through the lug (32), the lug (23) of said second lever (22) is received in a notch formed in the lowered rack bar (1) to retain said rack bar in its position.

7. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which upon completion of revolution of the cam (9a) of the accumulator gear (9), in conformance with numerals 9 to 0, the tooth (11b) of the first lever (11) is lowered by the cam (9a) of the gear (9), whereby the first stage tooth (110) having previously been in engagement with the fixed cross bar (10) is disengaged therefrom and the second stage tooth (11d) is brought into engagement with the cross bar (10) and, in this case, the first lever (11) is held away from the cam (9a) of the gear (9).

8. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which upon completion of revolution of the accumulator gear (9) in conformance with numeral 9, the first lever (11) is lowered by the cam (9a) of the gear (9) but is held in engagement with the cross bar (10) at the vertical wall portion bridging the first stage tooth (11c) and the second stage tooth (11d) and, in this case, the first lever (11) is not held away from the cam (9a) of the gear (9).

9. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which said first lever (11) is provided with two teeth (11a), (11b), one of which is arranged to engage said respective cams, whereby when said first lever is guided to and retained in said further position, the tooth is disengaged and retracted from said cam.

10. A column carrying system according to claim 1, in which the first lever (11) is provided with a tooth (11b) for engagement with the cam (9a) of the gear (9) and teeth (11c), (11d) for engagement with the first cross bar (10) and the length of the engaging wall portion of the first lever (11) with the cross bar (10) (that is, the length of the vertical wall portion bridging the first stage tooth (11c) and the second stage tooth (11d)) is longer than 1 pitch of the rack (1b) of the rack bar (1) but shorter than 2 pitches of the same.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,153,299 4/1939 Dahlberg 235137 2,794,592 6/1957 Excell 235l38 X 2,826,366 3/1958 Capellaro 235-137 2,992,773 7/1961 Capellaro et al. 235- 3,018,044 1/1962 Anderson 235137 3,029,014 4/ 1962 Capellaro 235-6031 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner STANLEY A. WAL, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 23560.3l 

